The Artist's Knowledge Of His Own Creative

Detective Stories Keep Alive A View Of The World Which Ought To Be True. Of Course People Read Them For Fun ... But Underneath They Feed A Hunger For Justice ... You Offer To Divert Them, And You Show Them By Stealth The Orderly World In Which We Should All Try To Be Living.

Learning And Literature Have A Way Of Outlasting The Civilization That Made Them.

What We Ask Is To Be Human Individuals, However Peculiar And Unexpected. It Is No Good Saying: "you Are A Little Girl And Therefore You Ought To Like Dolls"; If The Answer Is, "but I Don't," There Is No More To Be Said.

I Know What You're Thinking - That Anybody With Proper Sensitive Feelings Would Rather Scrub Floors For A Living. But I Should Scrub Floors Very Badly, And I Write Detective Stories Rather Well. I Don't See Why Proper Feelings Should Prevent Me From Doing My Proper Job.

The Only Sin Passion Can Commit Is To Be Joyless.